The web is full of abandoned websites. How often do you go to a website, submit a contact form and never hear back from anyone? For me, it's too often. Over time I've learned to stay away from websites that look abandoned or as I like to say "nobody's home". One of the ways I determine if a website is worth my time is I look for what's called social proof. This is evidence someone is on the other end, the business has real customers, and the website is really in business. This gives me the confidence to spend more time on the website, contact the company, and/or make purchases. That's what social proof is all about. Letting someone know you're on the other end. 

So how can you add social proof to your website? There are many things you can do to add social proof to your website. It can be something as simple as a message on your home page that lets your visitors know the latest time you updated your page or it can be as complex as using notifications to show off your latest testimonials, or that someone recently made a purchase from your website.

I recently came across a tool called ProveSource that has some creative ways to really grab your visitor's attention with some social proof. ProveSource is an app that lets you show off things like your recent form submissions, store purchases, reviews, and other information with a slide in message in the corner of your webpage. This catches the visitors eye and gives them the confidence you have customers and are in business.

ProveSource is fairly easy to use and works great with WebStarts. WebStarts is an easy to use website builder that lets you paste code from third-party apps like ProveSource right into the pages of your website. It's drag and drop, so it's easy to display page elements where and the way you want them to appear. 

To add ProveSource to your WebStarts website all you need to do is click on the Install link after signing up and logging into your ProveSource account. Copy the code to the clipboard, sign up and login to your WebStarts account, open the page editor, and click the Insert HTML code option. You're then able to paste the coded in the area provided, save and publish your changes. You can see the ProveSource notification in action by clicking on the View Site button.

With social proof on your website you'll likely begin noticing an increase in interactivity with your site. And with ProveSource you can track that data on the dashboard of your account. Helping you make better decisions about the messages you display and inspiring creative ideas to get your visitors more engaged with your online business.